Dark Fair. You Shouldn’t Be Mine EP Launch The Old Bar 30th of May 2014

June 8, 2014

Spending the day in bed with Seventeenth century French fairy tales by Charles Perrault had put me in a bit of a bad mood with patriarchy in general. So, it was a wonderful thing to have a swoon fest of female rock awesomeness to go to at The Old Bar on Saturday night. When I arrived The Aves, from Adelaide were filling the warm and cozy band room with their confident and guitar heavy sound. Lucy Campbell was leading the vocals and playing a Rickenbacker. Thomas Williams on lead guitar was holding it together with admirable playing skills, switching from pick to finger with the greatest of ease. He played controlled and slurring into your ears like a tipsy lover. The sound was jangly and not unlike The Smiths. A group of men were sitting to my left, on the couches with the slippery cushions. They were loving every minute of lapping up The Aves magic. As They finished a song, one of the guys joyfully exclaimed to his friends, ‘I am so turned on, right now!’

The next rock queen to take to the stage needs little introduction. Ali E is no stranger to rocking it hard. Her contributions to the bands Little Athletics, Damn Terran and Heavy Beach, have helped her develop into the medusa of garage rock that she is now. Ali E were brilliant and the growing crowd reacted in kind; by getting up and dancing. The punters who had been sitting to my left, stood up and started dancing self consciously in front of the stage. They did not dance as if trying to attack each other but simply moved their shoulders up and down and moved as if aware of not inhabiting too much of the dance floor. You could not see Ali E’s face as she played her black Jaguar, head down and blonde hair falling in a curtain over her face.

By the time Dark Fair took the stage, the crowd was packed shoulder to shoulder and the heat was thick. At first I thought I had missed a few people taking to the stage. The sound was too full, too big to come from two people. Romona Moore played her guitar and sung like a simmering pot of indignant rage. While Ellie Dunn drummed without breaking a sweat or loosing momentum. ‘If your name is Lisa.’ Romona said to the crowd. ‘This song is not about you. It’s called Lisa Deserves To Die.’ The crowd jumped around together and I heard one drunk guy say in a fake British accent to another, ‘’They are too cool for school.’ His friend replied in a fake British accent , ‘They are indeed, they are way to cool for the school I went to. That school was not cool at all.’ I was at the front and jumping around on the spot. There was no room for anything more complex. The energy was palpable. For the final two songs, Adalita stepped up on stage. She had been standing next to me the whole time. As she stood in front of a second microphone stand and slung a guitar over her. I realized she had been the lovely tall individual I had regaled with the following pearl of conversation wonder. ‘’I always love the warmth of The Old Bar on a winter night. But, I always wear really thick socks for the walk in the cold to get here. I always forget that when inside, it is actually quite warm and thin socks are all that is required. So now my feet are feeling really hot, while the rest of me is just comfortable.’ Adalita had laughed politely AND TOUCHED MY ARM. I remember being 16 and seeing her music video Ordinary Boy on late night Rage. She was an excellent addition to an already powerful twosome. Adalita simply added an extra level sassy and scuzzy guitar and vocals.

The applause and cheering was unabashed and raucous with enthusiasm. ‘Encore!.’ ‘Play another song!’ The crowd cheered and begged for more. Dark Fair delivered an extra two minutes of rock n roll greatness. All in all the night had had a tri fecta of mighty talented musicians.

I left with sore hot feet and a copy of the ep of all the three bands clutched tight in one hand.